Of Demons and Ghosts
by Mischief's Angel
Summary: We all have ghosts in our pasts that made us who we are today. We all struggle with our own demons. Some are just closer to their ghosts, and some have their demons living within them. How do you go on, constantly at war with yourself? No good at Summaries. Nightcrawler/OC Movieverse. Slightly AU. T for violence and angst. Please Read and Review. (STORY UNDER REVISION)
1. Chapter 1

**Intro/Summary/Disclaimer: **

**A closer look at the struggles and trials of a mutant known only as Phantom and of her unique "family" at New York's finest school...or at least its finest mutant school. This story isn't set at a particular time in the Movie-verse, but there are references to some of the movie-verse characters and events. Since I don't want to repeat events that we've all seen in the films a bunch of times, it's slightly AU. Nightcrawler/OC Set in an AU Movie-verse. Rated T mostly for violence and angst. **

**General Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men or any of the characters (obviously), but I do own Phantom (OC) and this story. **

**I do use German in this fic, but I really don't speak German. Therefore, I am going to use an internet translator. I apologize in advance to anyone that speaks German, because mistakes are very likely. Grammar mistakes are also likely, because I tend to write on various devices and programs. Stuff gets lost in translation, and I don't have a beta reader for this fic. **

**Please read and review. I appreciate the feedback. **

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Chapter 1:

Flames roared around the edges of her vision, as she tried deperately to find an exit to the inferno that quickly consumed the bulding around her. She could barely see due to the smoke that stung her eyes and burned her lungs. She tried to take as few breaths as she could, but the panic that has set into her chest prevented that. She could feel herself breathing more heavily, as though her body desperately searched for non-existent air. Black soon replaced the flames in the edge of her vision. She could see the black creeping slowly into sight. She forced it away as much as she could. She tried to scream, in hopes that someone, anyone, would hear her. To her dismay, she could not emit more than a pathetic yelp. She fell to the ground, no longer able to escape the flames that surrounded her. Just as she surrendered to the fact that they would be her end, the floor creaked sharply under her and gave way under the strain of the fire. She felt herself plummet through, falling away from the flames that had previously been licking at her arms and legs. As she fell, the blackness overwhelmed her vision and she could no longer see. All she could do was feel everything falling away from her. The falling did not stop. The fear overwhelmed all sense and reason. She gave one more attempt, and let out a terrified scream.

Phantom shot up, seeming to have been thrown harshly from her nightmare. She tried to calm herself down and to slow her breathing to a more average level. Her heart was pounding so hard, that she feared it would simply burst. A thin layer of sweat and fear clung to her like the memories of her dream. As she began to caim down, she took in her surroundings. She sat on her bed in the quiet, peaceful dark of her room. The doors that opened onto the small balcony of her room were opened outward. The cool night breeze blew the light curtains in an almmost eerie fashion. Phantom closed her eyes and deeply inhaled the crisp, night air. It restored her rational thoughts and blew away what fear still hung around her. A familliar sound and a puff of dark smoke appeared in the center of her room. Herr eyes could barely make out a dark silouhette that now stood there. As it moved closer, bright, yellow eyes became visible. The moonlight from the balcony reveled that there was a worried expression surrounding the unique eyes.

"Hey," Phantom sqeaked out quietly.

She was far to accustomed to this to be even slightly startled his entrance. Kurt rarely gave a second thought to appearing rather than using the door. The teleporting was so natural to him, that Phantom simply adapted to him coming and going frequently. Not to say that he didn't still sneak up on her once in a while.

"Are you alright?" he asked softly, sitting down on the edge of her bed.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she lied, attempting to cover up the fact that her nightmares had returned.

"Then vould you care to explain ze screaming?" he asked, seeing right through whatever facade she tried to put up, "I vas two floors above you and it still startled me."

Phantom grimaced at the idea that she woke anyone up with her apparently not imagined screams. The last thing that she wanted was attention at three in the morning.

"Who else did I wake up?" she groaned quietly.

"Vell, you woke the professor, but I told him I vould handle it. He sent whoever else was up back to sleep," Kurt answered calmly.

"Great!" she exciamed, barely above a whisper. She ungracefully plopped back down onto her pillow and appeared as though she wished it would swallow her and spare her the embarassment of probably waking a fourth of the school.

"If It makes it any better, you didn't wake me. I vas already awake."

"You're always awake, elf," Phantom sighed, slightly relieved that he wouldn't be upset by the 3 AM wake up.

"Lately, it does seem zat vay," he chuckled dryly. He seemed to drift into thought for a brief moment, before his attention returned. "Vas it the nightmares again?"

Phantom just sat up again and drew her knees up into her chest. She nodded softly, and buried her face into the grey sweat pants that covered her legs. Kurt moved to sit closer to her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. He leaned his head against hers, when she finally unburied her face.

"They're just getting worse," she admitted quielty.

"Come on," Kurt said, after a minute or so of silence, "I have an idea."

He pulled her closer to him, and for a brief second, she felt the familliar sensation of everything around her dissappearing completely. As quickly as the feeling occured, it was replaced by the feeling of solid wood flooring beneath her feet. She opened her eyes to find the two of them now standing in the kitchen. Teleporting was something that she didn't ever think that she would be used to. She waved away the sulfer-like smoke invaded her senses.

"Geez, Kurt. A warning next time, please." she chuckled.

"Sorry," he replied with a shrug.

Phantom sat at one the stools by the large kitchen's island table. She swung the stool back and forth slightly, ejoying the feeling of being away from her room for a bit. It wasn't long before a steaming mug was placed in front of her. The heavenly aroma that the mug emitted told her that it was herr favorite peppermint tea. She smiled as she brought the warm mug to her mouth and took a long sip. One could of smoke later and a jar was also set on the table in front of her. She opened it to see that it held what was one of the most onderful foods in existence...cookies! She smiled more and took a cookie from the jar.

"Where has this been hiding," she said, gesturing to the jar with her cookie.

"Not telling," Kurt smiled mischievioulsy, "Do you have any idea how hard it is to hide food in a school vith this many teenagers?"

"I can imagine," Phanton replied, subconciously wrinkling her nose very slightly at the cookie. Oatmeal-rasin was definitly not her favorite. What was the point of having a cookie with no chocolate? It was a cookie none the less, so she was still happy to have it. This kind was Kurt's favorite. She smiled to herself, thinking of how sweet he was when she had nights like this. She had these nights far more often than she would have liked to admit. She looked up to see Kurt quietly eating at one of the cookies. His gaze was fixed on the marble surface of the table. He was deep in thought, as was fairly normal for him. Recently, however, it seemed to be a bad thing.

"So..." she started after finishing the dessert in her hand, "Why were you awake this early anyway?"

"You said it yourself. I'm alvays awake recently," he sighed.

"Yeah, but why?" she inquired further, "Even for a night owl like you, isn't three o'clock pushing it a little?"

"Perhaps."

"Is there something you wanna talk about?" she asked before taking another gulp of her tea.

'It's nothing. Don't be vorried," he said through a half-hearted smile, "We should get you back upstairs. Ve both have training in a few hours, and I vould like sleep before then."

Phantom openly groaned at the thoought. Kurt just laughed at herr distressed sound, which didn't make her feel any better. She finished her tea and set the mug by the kitchen sink.

"Fine..." she yielded, taking Kurt's hand and disappearing yet again.

They reappeared back in the dark room, where the way-too-early morning had started. She sleepily tunnelled back into her cacoon of blankets. Kurt turned to leave, but she hadn't let go of his hand yet.

"Is this you vay of asking me to stay avhile longer?" he asked, rhetorically.

Her nod was almost lost among the blankets and pillows. Kurt moved around to the other side of her bed and laid down above the blankets behind her. He draped one arm over her to remind her that he was there, and that he wasn't going to disappear any time soon. She quickly faded off to sleep. Kurt knew that sleep wouldn't find him tonight, but he took comfort in being there to chase the nightmares away from the sleeping girl, even if only for a few hours.


	2. Chapter 2

**So, these first chapters have been a really slow build up. The story will pick up soon. Anyway, thanks for reading. Hope you like chapter 2.**

**~Mischief's Angel  
**

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Chapter 2:

Phantom was woken up by the sunlight that streamed into her room through her balcony doors. They had remained open, to her delight. She loved the fresh morning breeze, but Kurt always had a habit of shutting them when she fell asleep. She sat up and looked around. She couldn't really know when the teleporter had left, but she had to admit that she was disappointed that he did. He had stayed like she asked. That alone spoke volumes, so she pushed the slight sensation of disappointment out of her head. He was rarely the affectionate type. It wasn't until a few months into their relationship that he was even confortable holding her hand for longer than a few seconds. Phantom laughed to herself at the word "relationship".

"I don't have a clue what we are," she mentally noted.

She stretched the sleep out of her limbs. She turned and looked at her alarm clock that had failed to go off.

"IT'S TEN O'CLOCK!" she exclaimed, louder than she had intended.

She launched herself out of bed, and hurried to get dressed. She turned to look herself over in the mirror, when she nearly jumped. Her hair looked like it had been through a hurricane. This was not how she wanted to start the day!

After wrangling her messy, blonde curls into a pony tail, she quickly ran down to the kitchen. There she was met with the aftermath of breakfast. There were dishes and empty cereal boxes on every countertop. There was also an emptied milk carton that had been tossed aside. She quickly stacked the dishes in the sink and cleaned the trash and debris from the kitchen counters. By the time she finished that, it was already after 10:30.

"So much for breakfast," she huffed, "I am so dead."

She all but jogged to get to the Professor's office, before slowing down and casually walking in.

"Good morning, Professor," she said nervously.

Professor Charles Xavier was not only the headmaster of the school where Phantom lived, but he was also like family to her. He had been the person to pull her out of the foster system when she was younger, and he had been training her to develop her "gifts" ever since. She always hated to disappoint him, yet she seemed to always find new ways of doing so.

"Good morning," he replied as calmly and cheerfully as he usually did.

"Ugh, morning people," she thought to herself. However, she must have thought it awfully loudly, because the professor laughed slightly as soon as the thought had hit her.

"Ugh, Telepathic morning people," she thought a bit quieter.

"You missed your morning session today," the Professor noted, while sorting through papers of some importance.

"I know. It was kind of a rough night, so I overslept."

"Would you care to discuss the reoccurance of your nightmares, or would you care to have that discussion another time?" he asked telepathically.

Phantom knew that he would probably search around in her head to make sure that nothing was seriously wrong.

"I suppose that we can excuse today's session. Just...try not to be late again on Wednesday, alright?"

Phantom let out a sigh of relief that she hadn't realized she was holding in.

"Thank you professor."

She quietly made her way back out of the office. Her stomach reminded her that she hadn't yet eaten, but she ignored it and went on her way to the lower levels of the school. The school had more training areas than it had in previous years. Not only was the danger room often updated and improved, but there was also a good sized gym-like training area. This was used for more normal activities like weight-training, sports, and, in today's case, fencing. She always went to watch the fencing classes. She never considered taking up the sport herself, but she loved to sit in the benches and watch it. She had tried to convince herself that it was only because of the sport, but she knew that half the reason she went was for the fencing instructor. Not many students were brave enough to take fencing with Nightcrawler, and she couldn't say she blamed them. He was the school's undefeated champion, which is probably why they made him teach it.

She took her seat on the benches and watched the first few matches of the day.

This morning's challenger was Kitty Pryde. Kitty seemed rather quiet a lot of the time. Phantom didn't know a lot about her. The one thing she did know was that, even though she may be the youngest of the "X-Men", Kitty could hold her own in a good fight. But that's not what made this particular fencing class interesting. What made today notable was that after the third match, the undefeated Nightcrawler got beaten by a girl. Kitty won out the final match when Kurt uncharacteristicly lost focus and took a hard jab to the fencing vest. The assault seemed to come as such a surprise to Kurt, that it knocked him over.

"Kurt?!" Kitty called out, "What was that about?"

Kurt stood up and pulled the face guard off.

"You win. I think ve're done for today," he yawned.

"It's not much practice if you spent that whole last match zoned out. You like didn't even block that last time," Kitty argued, concern apparent in her voice.

"I'm just...a little distracted today," Kurt said, shrugging it off as if nothing were out of the ordinary.

"Alright..." Kitty said hesitently, before grabbing her bag and heading upstairs.

Kurt picked up whatever gear was lying around the gym. While he was doing so, he noticed that Phantom sat in her usual seat on the benches with a look of surprise and worry plastered all over her face.

"I was concerned before, but now I'm downright worried about you," she said, when he appeared of the bench beside her.

"Don't vorry about-"

"Kurt!" she cut him off, "You constantly telling me not to worry about you, makes me worry about you more! When was the last time you even slept."

He just sighed.

"And you are so not off the hook for letting me sleep until ten!" she added.

"If you're going to one of ze X-Men, you should learn how to set an alarm clock," he laughed.

"That isn't funny," she pouted, "I'm developing a bad reputation of always being late!"

"You don't need my help vith that!" he replied.

She lightly smacked him in the shoulder.

"And I'm not, by the way," she stated.

"Not vhat?" he inquired, laughter ceasing.

"I'm not going to be one of the "X-Men"."

"Vhy not?"

"Look, I like the whole super team thing, but I'm not like you guys. You guys do cool, practical stuff. I'm not even sure what all my "gifts" are yet," she said, making quotes with her fingers on the word "Gifts", "I couldn't even survive a danger room session."

"It just takes some time. You're stronger zen you chose to think."

"Easy for you to say," Phantom huffed, staring down at the floor, "Your mutation came complete with hardcore super powers!"

"And other...side effects," he added with an irritated tone, flicking his tail around in front of him.

Phantom laughed. She could never understand why he didn't see himself as the superhero that he always was to her.

"Are you hungry?" he asked, changing the topic.

"Starved."

"Let's go get something to eat. Vhatever food you want," he said distantly.

"This had been the weirdest Monday ever and it's not even noon yet," Phantom thought to herself.


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you to those who read, reviewed, and/or favorited my story. You guys are awesome. Please feel free to continue to leave feedback or comments. I live for the reviews and opinions! **

**~Mischief's Angel**

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Chapter 3:

In truth, it had been nearly a week. Kurt had not slept in nearly a week. He would never admit that to Phantom. She would just worry to much, and that was the last thing that he wanted for her. He made it his duty to protect her and keep her happy...as happy as she could be. From the day that Phantom had come to the school, she had been at war with her pessimistic personality and with the depression that she battled daily. She was also a compulsive worrier, and he would not have that getting worse on his account.

"Hey, anyone home over there?" Phantom's voice broke Kurt's train of thought, "Did you hear a word I was saying?"

They had been sitting and eating lunch at a table outside on one of the school's patios, but Kurt just sat at the table and pushed his plate around every once in a while, while he was thinking.

"I'm sorry," he sighed, feeling bad for being such terrible company at lunch, "Vhat where you saying?"

"I was talking about plans for this weekend," she began, "I was thinking that maybe we could find something fun to do."

She was forcing herself to remain optimistic, and to her great surprise, it was almost working.

"Ja, sure," Kurt agreed, pushing the plate around more.

"Any ideas?" she asked hopefully.

"Sure."

"What are they?"

"Sure."

"You have no idea what I'm saying right now," she sighed, mostly to herself, "I think I'm done with lunch."

By the time Kurt brought his attention back again, she was gone. He could have kicked himself for being a lousy "boyfriend" today. He mentally shuddered at the word. She didn't even truely consider them a couple...did she? He really hadn't said much about it either way. They did everything together. That could mean a few things, he guessed. He shoved the abused lunch plate to the other side of the table and dropped his head down to the table.

"Was soll ich tun?!" he muttered to himself.

Phantom paced back and fourth in her room. She tried to keep her mind on something, anything, but her oddly behaving friend. It was a pointless endeavor. She didn't have anything but Kurt. She didn't have a lot of friends. Her severe introverted tendencies prevented that. The only time she spent with the younger teachers or students was when she and Kurt were both doing something in a group. It was a nightmare for her when he shut himself down like this. Generally is wore itself out and he was back to his normal, slightly mischievious self in a matter of hours. She could wait it out until then. She decided on sitting on her balcony with an old book and letting the afternoon slip away. It was her favorite way to relax. Yet, she still couldn't shake the feeling that there was something much larger at work that she simply couldn't define or label.

Kurt had a much different way of distracting himself. The danger room proved to always be a good place for distraction. Drones moved in closer with the pre-programed intent of circling the target. Kurt stood silently and motionlessly in the center of the training simulation. He waited for the drones to get closer, before he attacked. He had never been the one to fire first in a simulatuion such as this one. When the first shot was fired, the sentinel-esque drones began their assault. It was short lived, for one by one they disappeared into dark smoke only to be torn apart or dropped from a great height, smashing into another on impact. Nearing seven minutes in to the program, only two remained. They stood on opposite sides of the teleporter, and when they fired, their shots hit each other rather than the intended target. All Kurt had to do was wait until the last second and dodge a bullet. This was a skill he had become very good at. It balanced out the fact that in a more metaphorical sense, there was no way to dodge the upcoming conversation with his "Girlfriend" that he would likely not enjoy.

"Ugh! Vergiss es einfach!" he quietly cursed to himself for undoing the whole purpose of the training distraction.

The program ended and all the of the objects vanished, leaving the blank metal room. Kurt let his eyes snap shut as he focused on the hallway outside of Phantom's room, but rather than simply teleporting there, as planned, he changed course and went to his own room.

When he arrived, he immediately made the decision that sweat pants and a t-shirt were better than the uniform that he had donned for the danger room. After he changed, he made the second best decision: today should be over. He collapsed onto the welcoming matress that his bed offered. In minutes he was asleep, and within the hour he regretted it.

He heard a familiar scream that stirred him from sleep. He was no longer in his own room, but now stood beside a dark street in the same uniform that he had just elected to be done with for the day. The only lights in the street were cars that had been destroyed and were now partially or completely on fire. There was wreckage everywhere. It looked as though it had been an active war zone just moments before. The only car intact was a large, armored van that made its way to through the wreckage. It was surrounded by armed troops of some sort. They were all clad in black and their faces were shielded by helmets and armored masks. He backed into the shadows of a large building, in hopes of remaining out of sight. He heard the familiar scream once again. Two of the soldiers held onto the arms of a woman that was screaming and stuggling to get free. She was clad in what looked like grey prison clothing. The guards threw a bag over her head and pulled her to the van. The back of the van opened to reveal more people dressed like she was. She was not able to break free of the guards, but she managed to pull the bag off of her head and look back at Kurt.

"PHANTOM!" he cried out towards her when he recognized who is was that they were arresting.

"KURT! HELP ME!" she shrieked as she was succsessfully pushed into the van.

Kurt ran to help her. He began to fight the guards away, but their numberrs seemed to be multiplying. He did his best to try and reach the van. His efforts were stopped by a piercing pain in his side. He put his hand to the sourse of the sharp pain, only to bring it back covered in blood. The same pain could suddenly be felt in three more places. His vision blurred as he watched the soldiers closing the van's doors.

"KURT! WAKE UP!" Phantom yelled, before the van was shut and drove off into the distance.

Kurt fell to his knees as the pain worsened. The rest of his vision surrendered to it, as he heard Phantom calling out his name again.

"Kurt! Wake up!"

He felt something shaking his shoulder, and he opened his eyes to see Phantom standing above him. They were both in his room at the school. It the realization of his dream set in as he forced himself awake.

"Vhat is it?" he groaned, rolling over and burying his face into his pillow.

"Kuuuurt!" she fussed.

He turned back around and sat up. It was then that he noticed the fear in her expression and that she was trembling. He looked at the clock on the stand next to his bed. The electric blue numbers read 12:48.

"Are you alright?" he asked, concerned.

She nodded no, and stared down at the floor.

"Vas it the nightmares again?"

"Yeah..."

"Ja, me too," he said with a dry churckle solely for the irony, "Come here."

He moved over to make room for her next to him. The bed was fairly small (he had never needed a large one like Phantom had), but they both still fit on it comfortably. She climbed in next to him, and he pulled her into his arms and held her until the trembling became less severe. He would never admit this, for fear of upsetting her, but he always thought that it was cute when she would go to him for security. Even if he wanted to deny her a place to sleep, all she would have to do is look at him with sad, blue eyes and he would immediately give in and give her whatever she wanted. That puppy face was definitely a weakness of his.

"Who knows, perhaps she can do for me vhat I alvays do for her and keep the most horrible of dream away," he thought to himself.

"Goodnight, kleine gespenst."


	4. Chapter 4

Movies » X-Men: The Movie » **Of Demons and Ghosts**

Author: Mischief's Angel

1\. Chapter 1 2. Chapter 2 3. Chapter 3 4. Chapter 4 5. Chapter 5 6. Chapter 6 7. Chapter 7 8. Chapter 8 9. Chapter 9

Rated: T - English - Romance/Drama - Reviews: 18 - Published: 07-20-14 - Updated: 07-29-14

id:10552473

**Thanks for the continued reviews and reads. Enjoy!**

**~Mischief's Angel**

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Chapter 4:

Unlike other mornings, Phantom was not stirred awake by the sunlight in her room. In fact, when she woke, there was no light at all. She had been woken up by movement behind her. More precisely, she woke up because there was a tail repeatedly hitting the back of her leg. Kurt still appeared fast asleep, and his arm was tightly secured around Phantom's waist. She could have probably slipped out unnoticed, but she really didn't want to leave. She had nowhere to be on Tuesday mornings anyway. She just cuddled back in closer to the bizzare, blue elf that she had the bittersweet priviledge of being in an awkward, unlabeled relationship with.

"Gosh, my priorities need some work," she laughed in her own mind, "I wonder what he thinks of all of this. He's gotta think it's at least a little weird. Then again, nothing ever phases Nightcrawler. I wonder what it's like to not be afraid..."

She had always seen Kurt as a fearless, unwavering character in her life. He never seemed afraid. Even when he was surprised or startled it was only for a few seconds. She had never questioned why he was like that. She just appreciated that she finally had someone close to her that could be strong enough and brave enough for both of them. What she never realized was how much it took for Kurt to always appear fearless, even when he was just as lost as she was. They were used to being lost. That's what the school was for. It was a bed and a warm meal when a lost soul had no where to go, and it was family when someone couldn't have felt more alone.

Phantom often thought back to the day that she was brought here. Kurt hadn't been at the school for very long, but he quickly grew used to it. Phantom, on the other hand, was still not sure she was used to it. She was only fifteen years old when she was pulled out of the foster system. No foster homes kept her for more than two or three weeks at the most. To them, she was a freak or a ghost. From a young age, she could move things with her mind. She had no control over when or where it happened. It was terrifying for the foster families when a child would get upset and books would start flying off of shelves and dishes would smash into the walls and floor. She also had the ability to talk to people mentally. She couldn't read minds, or control people's thoughts and actions. She could just have her voice appear in their head and speak to them that way. She could also appear to them. This was a confusing trick that she had only sucessfully achieved a handful of times. She could cause the other person to see or hear her, as if she was standing in the room, even if she wasn't there. She could then simply vanish. It was this particular trait that caused people to call her ghost or phantom her whole life. If she had a real name, it was long forgotten.

When her last foster home had sent her back, she was sure that she would end up on the street. No family wants to be "haunted" by a mutant teenager. It was that same day that the childcare people told her that she was being sent to a specialized school.

"Great, I'm being sent to a nuthouse for freaks," she had thought at the time.

It wasn't until she had met Professor Charles Xavier that she realized that this school truley wanted to help her. He had taken her in and cared for her from then on. She went from a freak with nothing to a teenager with a new (huge) house and an even bigger, more complex family than she could have ever dreamed. Even though she was never super close to the others, they had still been there for her. And, from day one, Kurt was there for her too. He had only been there about four months before her. He was two years older than her, so he was sixteen at the time. He was a tall, lanky, odd misfit of a guy if she had ever seen one. Most of the younger students were still afraid of him, and he never truely fit with a good number of the older students either. In the most sweet and genuine way possible...he was weird.

"Hello..." was all that he could manage when they werre first introduced.

"Hey, there," she replied, offering her hand.

There was a long pause.

"You're supposed to shake it," she informed himm, after he had just stared at her hand apprehensively.

He hesitently reached forward and shook her hand. Phantom was surprised to discover that, rather than the usual five, he had only three fingers on his hands. She figured that must be why he was apprehensive.

"Forgive me for being abrupt, but aren't you afraid of me?" was the first question that he had asked.

"Should I be?" she asked curoiusly.

"Everyone else is..." he admitted.

"Well, then it's about time there was someone who wasn't. That probably gets old fast," she laughed shyly.

"You have no idea," he replied, catching the quiet yet contagious laugh.

Now, here she was. It had been four years since that all started. Now she was eighteen and whatever spunk and confidence she had was long hidden away or gone. The only thing that had remained the same was Kurt. Sure he would travel a bit, and come and go often, and he had gotten stronger, more mature, and admittedly better looking, but he was still a lovable dork of an "elf" that she picked on. Meanwhile, she mentally smacked herself for the thoughts about him getting better looking.

Her sentimental thoughts were interrupted by that same darn tail that was batting at her leg again! Some days, she could swear the thing had a mind of its own. She checked to see if perhaps Kurt had woken up, but he still looked very asleep. He only stirred slightly to adjust the arm around Phantom's waist and subconsiously pull her closer. She absentmindedly traced the scars on his arm with her hand. For as long as she had known him, he had been covered in angelic symbols that were scarred into his dark blue skin. She didn't even venture to guess how many scars there were. The only thing that she knew about them was that a new one would appear when kurt had days like he had yesterday. He would shut himself away, sometimes for days, and reappear as though nothing had changed. Phantom always knew better. While, she loved the way they looked, she also hated what they represented. The beautiful scars were representations of pain. Everytime Kurt had a terrible event happen in his life, or he felt that he had done something aweful, he would create these scars. In a way, his life's story was written in a web of the angelic scarring. It was the most hardcore form of a tatoo, and one she could never inflict upon someone (much less herself). All in all, she had to admit they looked pretty badass.

While she traced the marks with her hand, Kurt loosened his grip on her waist slightly. He shifted and she was able to unwrap his arm, without waking him. She then untangled herself from the blankets and got up off of the bed. Kurt's room was, in her opinion, the most bizzare room in the school. He basically lived in the school's attic. It was accesible through a small spiraled staircase on the top floor of the regular dorm-like rooms. The cieling was angled however the roof of the old mansion was. There weren't a great deal of windows, and they were pretty small. However, what the windows lacked in size, they made up for in the view. From the top of the mansion, you could see the whole back of the property. The room was also fairly large. The cieling was significantly lower than in the other rooms, but there was enough room to stand and then some.

At the moment, what Phantom didn't like about Kurt's room was that he kept it so dark. Kurt had amazing nightvision, so the dark never bothered him. Phantom, however, had terrible vision in the dark. After all, she didn't need to see in the dark. She had Kurt for that. She navigated over in the dark, until she found the window. Then, she pulled away the black, light blocking curtains. Morning sunlight poured through the window directly unto the bed. Kurt let out a groan as the light hit his face. This was their usual morning routine whenever they stayed in the same room. Phanton had no love for mornings, but anyone at the school would swear that Nightcrawler hated mornings so much that he was nocturnal. It's amazign that he wasn't always late for morning training.

"Go back to sleep!" Kurt whined, his voice muffled by a pillow.

"Morning," Phantom chimed, ignoringhis demand, then proceeding to beat Kurt awake with a pillow.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello, readers. This chapter is slightly shorter than the others, but I stopped it at the best point I could think to end it. I plan on updating at least once or twice more today. If I haven't lost you by now, thanks for reading! Feel free to review or leave comments. **

**~Mischief's Angel**

* * *

Chapter 5:

Phantom gazed out the window at the large yard behind the mansion. There were a few students out and about. Most of the kids would be in classes by this point. It looked as though it would be a rainy kind of day. That didn't bother Phantom at all, however. She loved the rain. What she didn't love was having the same pillow that she had hit Kurt with thrown at the back of her head.

"Hey!" she protested, picking up the pillow and hurling it back.

"You had it coming!" the muffled responce came.

She walked over by the bed and started to pull on his arm in another pathetic attempt to get him to wake up.

"Come on, Kurt!" she whined, "We're going to end up missing the entire day!"

"I can live vith that."

Phantom finally stopped with her second attempt. She had on last idea and she wasn't sure that would wok either. She focused long and hard, and then put her hands out in front of her. It took quite a bit of effort, but the mattres started to shift. She only meant to shake it, but the mattress shot on its side, dumping Kurt to the ground with a 'thud'.

"Oops!" was the only sound coming from the startled girl.

She had expected him to be grouchy or upset, but she was relieved to hear laugher coming from the mountain of blankets and pillows that was plopped on the wood floor.

"I'm sorry!" she pleaded, "I just wanted to shake it or move it a little."

"Vell," Kurt laughed, standing up from the ungraceful pile, "You moved it."

Phantom started to pick up all of the bedding and spread it back over the mattress. Part of her felt bad for her joke going a bit too far, but another part of her realized that it took amazing force that she didn't realize she had. She stared at the mattress oddly for a moment.

"Woah," she thought to herself.

She turned to say something to Kurt, but he was gone. The window now stood open. Phantom walked over to the window, and was startled when dropped down to look at her from outside of the window.

"You are the only person crazy enough to climb out a window and hang upside down from the roof...in the rain. A very high roof, I might add!" she scolded.

"No, I'm not," he grinned, "Come on."

"What?! Nonono! NO!" she answered abruptly, "You can vanish before you hit the ground, but if I fall I'm history!"

"I von't let you fall," Kurt reassured, "Now come on."

Phantom grabbed onto the top of the window's frame, lifted herself up, and swung her legs outside of the frame. There was no way she was fallling to her death head first. She sat in the windowsill now. There was a small legde beneath the window. It was little more than a decorative trim, but she could stand on it. The unfortunate part was that other than the window frame and the ledge, there was nothing else to hold onto until you reaced the roofline. This was no dilemma for Kurt. He could climb walls and buildings like it was no one's business.

Phantom squealled when she slipped on the wet ledge and nearly lost her footing. She regained her composure and stepped up on the bottom of the window frame. She could now rreached the roofline easliy, but the angled part of the roof would be another challenge. The angled bit did lead to a flat roof, if one didn't get washed off of it first.

"This is crazy!" she called up, before Kurt grabbed her outreaching hand. His tail wrapped around her waist, and she was easily pulled up onto the roof.

"Why do I put up with this stuff?!" she wondered, to nno one in particular.

"Because you trust me," Kurt guessed, with confidence.

"I trust that you're crazy!"

It didn't take long for the rain to soak through to Phantom's bones, but she didn't seem to mind in the slightest. She and Kurt just sat on the roof enjoying each other's company and easy conversation.

"So, vhy do you like the rain so much?" Kurt asked, rather randomly.

"Because it's real," she sighed happily.

"Explain?" Kurt asked, confused by her responce.

"Everything is just so screwed up. Sometimes everything just feels like a great big nightmare. It doesn't feel real to me anymore. But...there is never rain in my dreams. The rain tells me that I'm awake. It brings me back to Earth, in a way," she said, dreamily starring off into the coulds, "No matter how screwed over and messy the world gets, there's always something good left. Just when I think that I'm so done with this hellhole world we all live in, it starts to rain."

"Perhaps it brings you back to remind you of vhat you have," Kurt analyzed, "I have something like that myself."

"What do you mean?" Phantom asked, turning her gaze to the solemn looking mutant.

"I vas done here," Kurt sighed, "I didn't belong anyvhere. I thought that people were all so full of hate, that I didn't even vant to belong anyvhere! Just when I had lost faith in ze vorld, something showed up suddenly and brought me back. An angel vas sent to bring me back. No, .everytime I feel that I am not strong enough to keep going, she is alvays there. I could not imagine these past years vithout her."

Realization fell on Phantom, as if it were the rain that continued to pour down on her. She tried to speak, but had nothing to say. She could find no way to express how she felt. She, herself, didn't even know how she felt.

"It takes quite a lot of strength to save a demon," Kurt noted, distantly.

She could tell he internally cringed at the word. He had been called a Demon as long as he lived. Phantom knew that. People were cruel and ignorant of what they didn't truely understand. But...had he actually started to believe them? Her thoughts were cut off by Kurt pushing a strand of wet hair out of her face. He tilted her chin up and met her lips in a gentle kiss. By that point, Phantom had completely forgotten how to think...or breathe. Kurt broke the kiss much to quickly for her. He stared down at the roof, refusing to make any kind of eye contact. Within seconds, he vanished.

Phantom stared at the empty spot on the roof and realeased the breath that she had never realized she was holding in. The weather that had seemed so comfortable now betrayed her. The air grew bitter and cold. It bit at her damp skin. She hugged her legs to herself slowly. She had so much racing through her mind. Her main issue was wonding how she was going to get down if Kurt had left. Great...


	6. Chapter 6

**So, this chapter is also relatively short. Anyways, I hope you enjoy it. Please R&amp;R. I love feedback! **

**~Mischief's Angel**

* * *

Chapter 6:

Kurt cursed himself for being such a fool. There was a great shortage of people who accepted him, and he had probably just lost one of them. He could feel the darker side of himself howling with rage. There was always so much anger hidden within himself. He had tried not to show it for as long as he could remember. He kept his darker side buried so deep that no one could find it. Recently, it seemed to be resurfacing for revenge. It was subconsiously referred to as his inner demon. He hated it. The more he hated it, the more anger it created in him. He could hear it screaming at him. It had never been so loud.

"Monster! Dämon! Verflucht!"

The words tore him apart. He yelled for the sake of drowing the noise out, even briefly. No one would ever hear him. His room was isolated from the others. He preferred it this way. Phantom would have gone downstairs through the trapdoor-like hatch that existed to get up and down from the roof. It was on all the way on the other side of the building from him. He was immediatley thankful for that.

It stung his heart to think about her. Would she even want to see him again after what he did? He wouldn't be surprised it that was the last time that she spoke to him.

"You damned fool..." he hissed at his own reflection.

There was one mirror in his room, and oh how he despised it right now. He still thought about Phantom. She had never found herself beautiful. She always found someway to complain about the way that she looked. To him, though, she was perfect. It hurt him to know that she would never see in herself what he saw in her. Why couldn't she just accept herself? How could she not realize how beautiful she was. He cast his stare into the mirror. The image in it disgusted him more than it ever had. He knew that he had been created with gifts for a reason, but now they felt like the curse that everyone else in the world believed they were. He stared at the image that bored into his soul with cold, yellow eyes. His hands tightened into fists. The scars that covered his skin felt as though they were burning into him. The cursing and mocking in his mind became deafening. He barely recognized the face that stared back at him; the face that scared everyone who saw it. There were days when he was even afraid of it. The appearance he was used to, but what it meant terrified him. He was afraid of what was inside of him. He was afraid of what he was capable of. He controlled the demon that dwelled inside of him, but the thought of losing that control was unbareable. He was constantly at war with it. Now, he could see it staring at him, with all of the anger and hatred it possessed. He couldn't bear it any longer! He swiftly drove his fist through the reflection, and the image cracked and shattered. He paid no mind to the cuts that had appeared in his hand.

"God, helo me..." he pleaded, as he sank down against the wall and sat in the silent darkness and sanctuary that he always treasured so much.

Phantom sat on her bed, in her own silent sanctuary. She towelled the rain out of her hair. She had come inside and changed clothes a while ago. Staying on the roof had no meaning without sitting there and talking with Kurt. The thought of him made her smile.

"He kissed me..." she sighed, as if still registering what had happened.

Her smile grew brighter at the thought. He had always been anxious about relationships, but he pushed himself past that to tell herr how he felt. Her heart melted at the thought. She never believed that anyone could care about her. Not in that way, anyway. Doubt crept in, following tht thought.

"Why me?" she thought, "I'm not special. I'm not some superhero chick. I'm not even pretty. I'm just so...average. An average freak. Why would anyone love me?"

She walked over to her mirror and stared in to the sad blue eyes that she saw there. She did like her eyes. Though, she hated the dark circles that sometimes sat under them. She didn't wear make-up very often. Maybe, she would wear a little bit once or twice a week. Her hair was a beautiful blonde color, but it curled, frizzed, tangled, and became downright unmanageable sometimes. She hated how round her face was, how she didn't look like the other stick-figure-esque girls at the school, how her face had a natural frown to it, how...well, the list went on and on.

Thinking of Kurt again made the feeling worse. Sure, she'd admit that he wasn't what normal people would ever deem handsome. But she didn't give a crap about what normal people thought of him. He was, in a word, striking. He had bright, friendly eyes and a stunning smile (fangs and all). He was tall, strong, fast, clever, agile. That list went on as well. Any woman would be lucky to have him in her life.

"But why me?" she thought again.

As she stood there, criticizing her reflection, she felt a sharp pain. It felt like a piece of her sould being sharply ripped out. It only lasted for a second, and she had no idea what it was. The only thing she knew was that something was wrong. Without thinking, she left her room and walked toward Kurt's room. He would know what to do. He always had the answer this kind of thing.

"Kurt?" she called, after her knocking recieved no answer, "Can I come in?"

No answer.

She tried to open the door, but it had been locked.

"That's weird," she thought, "He never locks the door."

She concentrated on the lock until she was able to turn it and open the door with her mind. Yes, it was technically breaking and entering, but this was important. Besides, she was impressed with the level of control that she demonstrated with her abilities.

She walked into the dark room, and turned on the light. The room was void of people. The light reflected off of the broken glass laying around on the floor from the abused mirror. She let out a loud gasp as her hands instinctively went up to cover her mouth. She tried to reach out with her limited telepathy and find Kurt. She was unable to sense him anywhere.

"Kurt...where are you?"


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello, again! So, this story is actually doing much better than I originally expected. I wasn't sure if I was going to continue it, but, due to the comments and reviews, I was encouraged to crank out a few more chapters. Now, I'm even planning to keep writing while traveling next week. You guys rock. Please continue to read and review!**

**~Mischief's Angel**

* * *

Chapter 7:

Seeing no sign of the teleporter, she sighed in defeat.

"Oh, great!" she thought, "I'm probably the last person that he wants to see right now. I don't even know where to start looking!"

She wandered the school's hallways and rooms that afternoon. Whenever she passed by someone, she would give them a hopeful "Have you seen Nightcrawler?". She had no luck with that method. It wasn't until she was certain that she had searched the entire building that she decided to quit for the day. Outside was the best option for a spot to hidaway and read, since the rain had surprisingly stopped hours ago. She headed toward a distant group of trees at the back edge of the property. It was quiet and no one really went back there.

When she reached the area, she noticed that it was already occupied.

"KURT!" she shouted, severly irritated that she had searched the entire bloody school, and he had been sitting out here.

Kurt jumped at the startling sound. He stood and spun around, but when he saw the angry woman walking toward him, he cautiously started moving backwards. Right as his instincts told him to get out of there, Phantom grabbed his wrist.

"We need to talk, so here's how this is gonna work: you vanish and you'll have no choice but to take me with you. You go, I go. Get it?" she fumed.

Kurt mentally began to panic. She couldn't truely be this upset about a kiss, could she? She must have really hated that idea.

"I have been looking for you since this morning," she explained, "Why are you out here?"

"Isn't it clear?" he answer nervously, "I vas hiding."

"Why? From who?"

"From you."

The irritation dropped from Phantom's expression. Her face showed her expression far too well, and now it showed that she was just breaking.

"W-why?" she choked out.

"I vas afraid," he admitted.

"No. No, I don't buy that," Phantom stuttered out, "You aren't afraid of anything. Much less...me."

This was making less and less sence to her.

"That isn't true," he sighed, "Just because I chose not to show fear, it does not mean that I am not afraid. I vas running from the thing that I vas most afraid of."

"So, were just going to avoid me forever?" she scoffed.

"Yes..."

"What is it that worries you so much?!" she demanded.

"I don't vant to lose you," he explained, "I assumed that you vould be upset with me, and I couldn't take more rejection. Not from you. So, I did vhat I do best and I disappeared. It clearly didn't work, because you found me in under eight hours."

"You were going to stay away from me for fear that you'd lose me? Do you realize how stupid crazy that sounds?!"

"The idea of staying avay from you hurt, but It could never hurt as much as seeing you look at me like everyvone else does," he continued.

"There is something so wrong with your logic sometimes," Phantom laughed quietly.

Before he could say anything else she grabbed onto his shirt and pulled him into a more sudden kiss than he had given her earlier. When she pulled away, Kurt just stood there completely stunned. He looked like a deer in headlights and Phantom had to admit that it was hilarious.

"And I'm still really mad at you for scaring me and disappearing today! Your room looks like a crime scene, elf!" she said, trying desperately to remain upset with him (which was really hard for her).

"But...I don't understand..." Kurt stuttered out.

"UGH!" phantom groaned, before pulling him into another kiss, "Getting the picture yet?"

He was frozen again.

"Nothing? Then I guess it's my turn to vanish. When you want to have an actual, non overdramatic, middle-school crap conversation about this, I'll be in the library."

Phantom, being deliberately overdramatic, stormed back to the mansion. Kurt snapped back to reality, and the gravity of the situation dawned on him.

"She doesn't hate me!" he noted, happily, to himself.

Then the rest of the conversation dawned on him.

"Vat does she mean overdramatic middle-school crap?!"

Phantom all but floated into the library. She gave up trying to stay mad when she reached the school's back door. Her resolve to stay mad at him was always really weak anyway. She was so distracted that she almost bumped directly into one of the teachers in the library.

"Oh, sorry, Ms. Monroe," she said, swerving just in time.

"It's alright," the woman answered, "What's got your head in the clouds today?"

"I think I might have a boyfriend...but I'm not sure..." Phantom attempted answering.

"It's about time," (more commonly known to the students as Storm) commented, "Logan and Scott were starting to take bets of when he'd get off his tail and tell you."

With a laugh, she walked out of the library.

"Was it really that obvious to everyone but me?" Phantom asked herself, "I knew that we were like weirdly close, but I thought it might have been in my head..."

She shrugged it off and continued searching for a new book. Her favorite part about living in a mansion-school hybrid was that, with the library, there was no shortage of reading material.

Kurt spent the rest of the day wondering around as though he had seen a ghost. Or in this case a phantom. He was terrified of the idea of maintaining a "relationship". He had no idea what to do or say next, or what he was expected to do or say.

"Hey, Kurt," a voice from behind him called over.

He noticed that the voice belonged to bobby, who was one of the older students at the school.

"Ja?" Kurt answered.

"Do you happen to know Rogue's favorite color?" Bobby asked, rather awkwardly.

"Vhy would you need to know?" Kurt laughed, at the randomness.

"I just...I need to know for...surprise reasons..." Bobby asked.

"You're going to buy her something that's her favorite color reasons?"

"Yup. I thought maybe you'd know. You guys are close-ish."

"Green," Kurt confirmed, continuing to laugh.

"Thanks, I owe you one," Bobby said before starting to walk away.

"Good, because I need your help vith a surprise of my own."


	8. Chapter 8

**Okay. This is a short-ish, fluffy-ish chapter. Not very intense or dramatic, but I'm the writer. I'm sticking with it. Enjoy! R&amp;R please!**

**~Mischief's Angel**

* * *

Chapter 8:

"A carnival?! That's your brilliant idea?!"

"Come on. It would be fun." Bobby defended, "You asked me what she might wanna do."

"Vhen I asked you for help coming up vith plans for the weekend, I meant plans here!" Kurt responded, "Phantom said that she vanted to do something fun over the weekend. It's now Thursday, and the only idea we have is a carnival? This is a disaster."

Kurt sighed and slupmed his shoulders. This surprise was not working out for him.

"If you do stuff here it won't be surprising!" Bobby argued, "Not to mention it'll be boring!"

"That's vhat I needed your help vith in ze first place!"

"And I am helping!" Bobby pointed out, "Take the girl on a date!"

"It's a terrible idea!" Kurt exclaimed.

"Why? A carnival is like your safest bet. Sure, everyone freaks out about mutants in a public school, but no one cares about mutants going to a carnival. Have you seen the people who work at this particular one. It's going to be a shock if there are any non-mutants there!" Bobby continued to argue, "After all, Phantom would love it."

"You're sure?" Kurt inquired again.

"Positive!" Bobby confirmed.

"Vell then, I guess I have a date tomorrow night," Kurt realized.

"Well, first you gotta ask her out." Bobby added.

"Nicht gut..."

Phantom came back up to her room from the library. She had already burned through her books from Tuesday. At the moment, she didn't feel like reading the new book she picked up. She really just wanted to talk to Kurt. They had been together for a lot of Wednesday, but it was mostly awkward silences. Reguardless, she was happy that Kurt was alright and wasn't hiding from her anymore. Just then Kurt came down the hallway behind her.

"Can ve talk?" he asked.

"Sure." she chimed, "I've been meaning to talk to you today."

She walked into her room and sat down on her bed, with her legs folded under her. Kurt sat on the corner of the bed and nervously moved his gaze to different spots on the floor.

"I vanted to ask if..."

"I want a name."

They both started at the same time, stopping after they had realized the other started.

"You go first." Phantom suggested.

"A name?" Kurt inquired, taking any chance, at all, to delay asking a girl on a date.

"Yeah. You've got two names, but I only have one." she said shyly.

"Go on." he prodded curiously back at her.

"Well, Phantom is like a mutant name or like a codename. It's not pretty or cute. It's like not even a name. It's kinda like a label. I want a real name too..." she fiddled with a small throw pillow in her hands as she spoke.

"Vell, it vasn't a name before it became your name," Kurt stated, trying to piece this together, "But everyone calls you that now, so it sort of became your name."

"Would you want to be known as Nightcrawler all of the time?" she asked, "It's a cool codename, but it doesn't really work on a keychain or Cristmas card like Kurt does."

"You can't just pick any old name though."

"Why not?" she wondered.

"Because no one picks out zhere own name. It's usually chosen for them by family, and it usually means something significant to them."

"You pick it then." she insisted, "I don't have any family, but you and the professor come the closest."

Kurt was feeling really put on the spot right about now. They spent the next hour going through names and their meanings. Phantom wrinkled her nose at most of the names though.

"They're all so...boring." she admitted.

"Ja, now you see the problem," Kurt chuckled happily, "Kurt is not all that interesting, but, unlike you, I vas not given a choice."

"What about a fun name? Or something interesting! Anything would be better than no suggestion at all!"

"Ah! But you turn your nose up at my suggestions," Kurt pointed out.

"UGH! How hard could this be!" she said, plopping face first into a pillow.

As she did that, the objects on any flat surface in the room started to shake and shift around.

"You really do haunt buildings vhen you're upset then?" he laughed.

"I don't mean to do it!" she said defensively when the rattling objects stopped.

"That's it!" Kurt visibly lit up when an idea struck him. "You're a ghost!"

He started laughing again.

"I think the whole "Phantom" thing already covered that genius!" she retorted.

"No," Kurt explained, "You're not like a Phantom. It's a good codename and all, but you need one that fits you for a real name. You're friendly, though shy. You move about quietly. You haunt things and people by accident. I've got it."

"What?"

"Casper."

"Oh, hecks no!" she protested, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.

"Too late! I'm going to start calling you that!" Kurt said, about ready to fall over laughing.

"Well, I'm changing this topic, before it gets worse for did you wanna talk about before?"

Kurt froze, remembering that he was still nervous about asking her out.

"Vell...I vanted to ask...maybe..."

"Spit it out, man," she interrupted, "If you wanna ask me something, just do it!"

"Vill you go out vith me...like a date...kind of...yeah..." he forced the words out awkwardly.

"Yes!" she chimed back happily, throwing her arms around him in a hug.

She then sat back on her heels.

"But we are NOT going with Casper!"


	9. Chapter 9

**Okay, so I know I said that I would post some longer chapters. This is not one of them. This chapter is basically just a short little filler chapter. I jotted it down quickly, so I could post something today. The longer, follow-up chapter is in progress now. Thanks for reading. Enjoy the chapter and (if you want) feel free to leave me comments or reviews. I love feedback!**

**~Mischief's Angel**

* * *

Phantom wandered down the hallway. She was, for once, totally happy. She felt as though she could float down the corridor instead of walking it. She mentally ran through so many questions she had. What would her date be like? Where would they go? Did Kurt already have some kind of a plan? She would ask him when she saw him next. She had been so bad about containing her excitement, that she couldn't focus on anything to save her life. She had accidentally dropped a huge stack of books and a lamp while she was working with the professor that morning. Normally, she would have been frustrated with herself, but not today. Today, nothing could bring her down. Except maybe that rolled bit of carpet she just tripped on.

Luckily, as she fell, someone was there to catch her before she faceplanted.

"Thanks, Pete," she said, after she regained her footing.

Piotr (or Pete as some called him) was one of Phantom's small number of friends at the school. They mostly got along because she wasn't a talker and he's always been the strong, silent type. Talkative people made them both a little uncomfortable. It was something they shared. Heck, it might be the only thing they shared.

"You may want to step over that in the future," Pete laughed, before stepping on the roll in the rug and flattening it out.

"I was thinking, so I guess I kinda forgot the whole look-where-I-was-going thing."

"Yeah, I could tell," he remarked.

"Thanks again though."

"So, "Casper" huh?" Pete asked.

"Kurt tell you?"

"Yeah."

"I'm so gonna kill him!"

Pete just shrugged and continued his own separate way.

Now, Phantom had a whole new set of things to talk to Kurt about! She quickly made her way to the Danger Room, where she suspected he might be. When she arrived, she pressed the PA system controls that activated the speakers in the room. She could tell Kurt and Wolverine were in there due to the observation screens outside.

"Kurt!" she yelled over the room's PA speakers, "Can we talk for a minute?!"

She could hear the simulation inside pause, and Logan laughing gruffly. The simulation resumed when Kurt appeared next to her outside. He offered a weak what-did-I-do smile.

"Hi." Phantom said flattly.

"Is there a problem?" Kurt asked, fairly innocently.

"I thought we agreed we were NOT going with "Casper"!" she argued.

"Ve never agreed to anything! You may have protested it, but I never said I vouldn't use it! After all, you did have me help you choose it."

"Woah! I didn't choose it! You did! Now people are starting to call me that!" she complained.

"Really? They are?" Kurt inquired, impressed by how fast it got around.

"Who knows about it?" she demanded to know.

"I may have mentioned it to Piotr and Jubilee, but I hadn't meant for it to come up..." Kurt admitted.

"Jubilee?!" Phantom panicked, "You told Jubilee?! Now everyone will hear about it by the end of the day! That girl can't withhold information to save her life! This is a nightmare."

"It's not so bad," Kurt laughed, "It seem you are the only one that doesn't like it."

"Wait...really?"

"Ja, the people I told thought it vas great."

"I still think it's dorky," she pouted.

"I think it's adorable," Kurt smiled, "So...are you upset vith me?"

"No."

"Good, because that vould have made tonight awkvard."

"What's tonight?" she asked, cluelessly.

"Vell...I thought It vould be a good night for that date."

"Great," Phantom all but giggled, "What are we doing? Movies? TV Marathon? Board games?"

"Actaully, I vas thinking ve'd go out," Kurt answered.

"Go out? Like go into town "go out"?"

"Ja, I guess."

"You actually want to go out?" she repeated, as if she had heard him wrong.

"Yes."

"Won't that be kind of a problem? With the whole blue thing and all?"

"Not vhere ve're going," Kurt beamed proudly, as if it had been his brilliant plan (instead of Bobby's).

"Where the heck are we going then?" she asked, now completely lost.

"Vait here," Kurt said, before disappearing.

He reappeared a few moments later with a folded up advertisement. He handed it to Phantom and waited to see her reaction.

"A...carnival?"


End file.
